Grounding (earthing) of over head transmission line towers in hilly areas or areas with high soil resistivity

The main purpose of grounding over head transmission systems is to provide a suitably low resistance path for the discharge of fault current and provide good performance for lightening. This helps in controlling ground potential rise, and touch and step voltages. This also helps in reducing back flash over in the over head transmission system.

This paper provides overview of different grounding methods for grounding of transmission tower erected in areas of high resistivity or hilly areas (Figure1).